Rice Farmer

Rice Farmer lives out in the hills, growing rice and veggies organically.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Stay the Course

I’m not surprised by Bush’s speech. The idiot said just what I thought he would, in front of a hand-picked military audience. Nevertheless, the performance revealed how desperate things are getting.

Dubya finished in well under the allotted time, which suggests that he was supposed to have been interrupted often by cheering and applause, but apparently the copious flow of slime and lies was interrupted but once. Even the hand-picked captive audiences aren’t showing as much enthusiasm as before.

The speech was also another recent manifestation of how the 9/11-terrorist card just isn’t the powerful trump that it used to be. If Bush wants to keep using that ploy, he’ll have to plan and execute another phony “terrorist” attack.

Of course, Bush’s speech was a reeking pile of BS. Our mission in Iraq is to hunt down terrorists, he claimed. The real mission is to set up permanent military bases and sit on the oil. And to make obscene profits for US corporations.

“Like most Americans, I see the images of violence and bloodshed. Every picture is horrifying, and the suffering is real.” Utter crap. The lives of Americans and Iraqis alike mean little or nothing to him, else he would not have started an illegal war on a pack of lies. You wonder how someone like Bush can sleep at night, or look at himself in the mirror without vomiting.

Like all Bush’s speeches, the whole thing was a sickening display of self-righteousness, hate-peddling, hypocrisy, lies, spin, and distortion.

Gitmo Is a Tropical Resort?

To what lengths will the Bush administration go to portray its POW camp at Guantanamo as being a nice place for its inmates? Cheney’s recent statement is a good example.

According to the VP, the prisoners are living in some sort of tropical resort where “They've got everything they could possibility want.” Wow! Everything they could possibly want? That’s nothing short of paradise.

But to all indications, the Veep is given to hyperbole, as reports indicate “everything they could possibly want” does not extend even to things like abiding by the Geneva Conventions.

Friday, June 24, 2005

T. Boone Pickens Speaks

And we should be listening. The oil legend says peak oil is upon us, and all the talk about increasing production is just that — talk.

With most of the easy-to-get oil already gotten, humanity is trying to satiate its increasing oil appetite from a shrinking reservoir. And with more big players competing for pieces of a shrinking pie, it’s going to get ugly in the near future.

American Political Ploys

The other day I wrote about a clever ruse used in US politics to discredit opponents or make them fall into line. Here’s another. This one’s a nationalistic ploy that developed out of Bush’s phony 9/11 terrorist attack. Claim that your opponent is “soft on terrorism” and make him look as if he’s coddling bad guys, or is perhaps even a traitor. Just like the “friend of Israel” device, the opponent must immediately respond by emphatically denying the attacker’s accusation, or face political death.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

OECD Out of Touch with Reality

Why is it that the world population is far above the Earth’s carrying capacity? The easy answer is: Cheap oil. And with cheap oil quickly becoming a thing of the past, a lot of people are going to starve and/or freeze to death in the coming years. Since there is no substitute for oil, you can kiss your industrial lifestyle and your cheap and abundant food goodbye. This should be apparent to anyone who hasn’t been allowing all their attention to be absorbed by the lives and scandals of the stars.

So it is that I couldn’t believe my eyes when I scanned a recent OECD report (PDF) entitled “Extending Opportunities: How Active Social Policy Can Benefit Us All.”

Judging from section headings like “Observed fertility rates are well below desired levels,” you can guess what population policy the OECD promotes. In their view, it is important that countries maintain “stable” populations by keeping their fertility rates up, and it offers all sorts of helpful suggestions on how governments might accomplish this.

Obviously, the OECD people are out of touch with reality. Unless I missed it, the report includes no section on where the food and energy to support these populations are going to come from. Having enough to eat, according to the report, is merely a problem of “access,” i.e., having enough money to buy it.

By promoting an unsustainable system, the OECD is doing humanity and the Earth a tremendous disservice.

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Licking Israel’s Boots

We are assured again and again by left gatekeepers that Israel does not control the US. Poppycock. When Israel commands, “Jump!” the US asks, “How high?” The Zionist lobby’s stranglehold over the US political establishment is so powerful that US politicos dare ignore it at their own peril.

Perhaps you saw the letter by Congressman John Conyers trashing the Washington Post for mocking the hearing on the Downing Street Memo. The Post and the article’s author, Dana Milbank, certainly deserved trashing for, well, writing and publishing trash. Particularly trashy was Milbank’s use of the cowardly political ploy — a standard in US politics to discredit someone — of suggesting anti-Semitism.

While I expect this from a hack like Milbank, I was dismayed, but not surprised, by the disclaimer this elicited from Conyers:

First, let me be clear: I consider myself to be friend and supporter of Israel and there were a number of other staunchly pro-Israel members who were in attendance at the hearing. I do not agree with, support, or condone any comments asserting Israeli control over U.S. policy, and I find any allegation that Israel is trying to dominate the world or had anything to do with the September 11 tragedy disgusting and offensive.

This is the standard and obligatory “I am a friend of Israel” statement required of US politicos. Ray McGovern as quoted by Milbank speaks a seminal truth: You can’t say anything critical of Israel without opening yourself up to attacks of “anti-Semitism,” which is of course a trick to deflect criticism of Israeli policies and actions.

It’s too bad that Conyers fell for this trick, but it appears required for any US politician who wants to stay in office.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Fear of the People Hounds the Right

What does the right fear most? The people! Arnold Schwarzenegger had all he could do to finish delivering a graduation speech at Santa Monica College, and no sooner were the last words out of his mouth than he beat a hasty retreat. According to the report:

“Schwarzenegger left the stage almost immediately after his speech, speeding across the infield in a golf cart surrounded by sprinting security guards. Across the field, he pulled up toward a waiting SUV and a large steel gate was closed behind him.”

Clearly, he is deathly afraid of the people. Another, more well-known example is President Dubya, who is kept heavily shielded and isolated from the people. Only thoroughly screened, captive audiences are allowed into venues where Dubya appears, and anyone suspected of opposing his policies is hustled off or even arrested. Even press conferences are rare, despite the docility of the lapdog media, which can be counted on not to ask any embarrassing or challenging questions.

If the right really thinks it has the support of the people — which is what it claims — then why the supercharged security and the running from speaking venues? The truth is, the right is afraid of the people. Fear of you and me hounds them day and night. They are hagridden by anxiety over demonstrators and expressions of dissatisfaction. When leaders fear their own people, it is a sign of their awareness that they have lost the hearts of the people, that they have no satisfactory answers for challenging questions.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Gored Again

Oh, puh-leeze! Self-proclaimed environmental crusader Al Gore is trying to get us fired up to help solve the disaster that his party has helped create. This is the guy who didn’t contest the stolen election in 2000, and in fact hasn’t done much of anything that makes me think he has the interests of democracy or the Earth seriously in mind.

If Gore wants me to take him seriously, he’ll have to begin by renouncing the Republicrats and their corrupt system. Instead, he plays Pied Piper by leading Americans down the Republicrat path of false promises, money politics, never-ending war, capitalist exploitation, frenzied consumption, and self-destruction.

When Money Intervenes

When I bring some veggies home from the garden, a few are picture perfect, but most have some kind of “defect” left by insects or whatever else inhabits my garden when I am not around. Lately turnips are in season, and I find that many of them have tiny little bites from field mice, who know good turnips.

That’s no problem to me. But if you’ve ever visited the fields of commercial farmers, you’ll be astounded at the mountains (literally) of vegetables that are rejected because an insect or mouse got to them before harvest time. The reason is that only defect-free vegetables will sell. Any sign of chomping by an insect automatically disqualifies produce from commercial sale, even though it still offers the same nutritive value. If you give such “defective” vegetables to people, they will gladly accept and eat them, but they wouldn’t think of paying for them at the supermarket.

This is an example of how money corrupts and distorts. And it is also an example of how pampered and extravagant First-World consumers are. These people are in for a big shock.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

British Workers Turned into Robots

Human workers all over Britain are being tagged with computers that monitor their every move and in some cases tell them what to do. It’s a new advance in the panopticon society, where a person can’t even stop to pee without being monitored.

Friday, June 03, 2005

9/11 Denial Movement Recruits Scientific American

I can understand why a lowbrow magazine for Joe Sixpack like Popular Mechanics would join the very trendy 9/11 denial movement, but now even that venerable standard of scientific thinking, Scientific American, has prostituted its pages for the irrational ravings of professional skeptic Michael Shermer. That Mr. Shermer is not at all skeptical of the Bush regime’s nonsensical cover story for 9/11 shows either that his powers of reasoning have abandoned him, or that he is another shill for Bush.

I was going to rebut some of his absurd arguments, but since someone else has already done it, I recommend that you go here.

Being skeptical is good, but when examination of the evidence shows clearly that Bush’s story is concocted, holding to the official line is irrational or politically motivated. And if the scientific minds at Scientific American are so good, how could they possibly be fooled so easily by such an obviously contrived story as that peddled by the Bush regime?

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Keeping Secrets

It seems that quite a few people knew the identity of Deep Throat. Yet, the secret was kept from the public for 30 years. This is yet another indication of how easy it is to keep something secret from the public even if a lot of people know. It therefore shows how naive (or disingenuous) certain left gatekeepers are to claim that 9/11 could not have been an inside job because too many people would be privy to the real story, and someone would have spilled the beans by now. Balderdash. Another example of a well-kept secret often cited is the Manhattan Project.

And in the case of a monstrous criminal act like 9/11, there are many conceivable ways to keep people quiet. For example, if the safety of your loved ones was on the line, that would be a powerful incentive to hold your tongue, would it not? And people who got a piece of the action would of course maintain silence because they themselves would be criminally liable. There are no doubt hundreds of people who have knowledge of 9/11, but spreading around the profits and blame, along with a liberal helping of threats, can do wonders to keep the cat in the bag.